For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
This proverb reminds us of the true value of helping the poor, those who will never be able to repay us for our efforts. Doing such things is like loaning money to God. He will repay us with interest. Even if such were not the case, do we not owe God more than we can conceivably repay?
I have always loved the opening of this psalm:
“There is no God.”
It is so definitely true and all forms of folly follow from this starting point. The psalmist goes on to remind us that we have all turned away from God at one point or another. It is only through God’s grace that He has called some of us back to Him.
We cannot hope to receive what God promises us on the basis of being “good enough”, no one is “good enough”. Not even Abraham was “good enough”. Abraham never wavered in his faith in God, even when it seemed impossible that God’s promise would be fulfilled. God considered Abraham righteous, not because of what he did, but because he believed that God would fulfill His promises, even when there was no reason to hope. God will do the same for us if we exhibit the same faith which Abraham did.
Our faith will bring us joy, even in the face of suffering. Paul does a great job of explaining why we should be happy when we face suffering. The suffering and difficulties we face will teach us to persevere. Learning to persevere builds character. Those who have character have learned to hope. If our hope is in God it will not lead to disappointment. Therefore let us rejoice when we experience suffering.
The account continues to list the tasks assigned to various groups of Levites, leaders of the tribes, army commanders, and various other government officials. In the middle of this we learn that these lists were derived from the census David ordered, which was never completed because of the plague which broke out. Despite ordering an ill-thought census, David had a carefully organized government which allowed him to rule over the land of Israel.